


Nature's Tool

by thismagichour



Series: Bad Things Happen, but It'll Turn Out Okay [4]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Bad Things Happen Bingo, Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death, Gen, Protective Fjord
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-11
Updated: 2018-12-11
Packaged: 2019-09-16 07:06:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16949295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thismagichour/pseuds/thismagichour
Summary: For the prompt: "Go through me" post!kidnapping fjord protecting m9???Fjord has failed this group before, and Caleb had to pick up the pieces. Fjord never makes the same mistake twice.Also this references all the way through ep 43 so like, don't spoil yourself, folks.





	Nature's Tool

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't actually go in depth about the kidnapping, just because I feel very much like it's still influencing Fjord. I don't even know how much of this is fic and how much of this is meta, honestly, I just have a lot of feelings about Fjord.
> 
> Also I wrote this, in a literal fever haze at like 1am without a beta, so RIP my grammatical skills, probably

Fjord has never considered himself a coward. He’s been frightened, sure, growing up a half-monster in a city of mostly normal folk kind of lends to being frightened all the time. He’s been on treacherous seas, faced down all sorts of monsters, hell, he woke up from drowning to freaky magical powers; Fjord is absolutely no stranger to fear. But he’s never been a coward. Now that he’s gotten everyone neck deep into this ish with Avantika, he wishes, very briefly, that he were. Maybe if he were a coward, some lick of common sense would have told him that he was gonna be putting more than his own neck on the line. He’s already failed at protecting this group once. Caleb has been more than gracious about mopping up after his mistakes the one time, and had been kind enough to not even mention it. Fjord can’t abide by that happening again.

He’s proactive this time. He checks in with the group frequently, absolutely willing to take any advice on their current trajectory, but everyone seems frustratingly gung-ho about following his lead, though he doesn’t know _why_ \- he’s said several times that he’s not a captain, he was never meant to be the leader of this group, he’s only supposed to hold it together. He goes to Caleb first, makes sure Caleb understands what they are up against, only to find that Caleb seems to understand better than he does. Fjord feels the steady pressure of Caleb’s gaze at his back, finds that he is comforted by it, somehow, knows that he must do what he has to, for Jester and Yasha, who he has already let down, Beau and Caduceus, who have faith in him, for Nott and Caleb, who will be fine without him anyway. When he washes the scent of Avantika off him at night, feels the phantom press of her teeth and her hands and her thighs, he pricks his lips furiously with the sharpened edges of his growing tusks and thinks about them, not her. 

Things start moving quickly. Fjord is sure that he’s missing far more than he’s picking up. Everything is going a bit too fast, a bit too out of control, like when you’re running down a hill and starting to realize you’re about to fall on your face. He is outmaneuvered, and this isn’t like drowning at all, drowning took an eternity, but as Avantika drags them all onto the ship, the journal burning a hole in Caleb’s coat pocket, Fjord feels like time is speeding past him. He can taste Avantika on his tongue, and the faint tang of blood, and he realizes that he’s biting his lip. He’s panicking, he thinks faintly, he’s supposed to be the steady hand here, he’s supposed to be protecting them - and then there’s _heat_.

In the instant that Caleb makes his move, everything in Fjord snaps to life. Caleb’s words echo - _keep the group safe?_ Sure. He starts running. He watches as Jester and Beau pop out of reality, as Yasha and Cad get the picture and sprint away from the boat. He reaches his destination, making eye contact with Nott, who squints, before turning on her heel and fleeing after Yasha. He doesn’t even have a second to feel relief because Caleb is being hit, two massive swings from Bouldergut nearly tear him in half before Fjord can get him out of there. When they land, Caleb is already moving again, before taking several arrows and eating dirt. Fjord does what he can, creates a distraction, pushes through, keeps an eye on all of them, revives Caleb, and waits. He can be good in a fight, but that isn’t what this is gonna call for. He’s not panicking anymore. In fact, a calm has fallen over him, the kind he only recognizes from being submerged completely underwater. He waits.

When the Plank King comes, Fjord has only one thought - he will get the group out of this, at any cost. He will fix what he’s broken, he will prove that he’s worth their trust in him. When Avantika is dragged out in front of him, he doesn’t flinch. He has been the line of defense between Avantika and the group plenty of times now, this is no different. He only twitches a little at the ghost of her teeth against the tip of his ear, and he barely tastes the blood on his tongue at all. _If you want them, you’ll have to go through me_ , Fjord doesn’t say, despite her having tasted it on his tongue every night. He’s never said it, and he doesn’t now. He doesn’t have to. When she narrows in, focusing all her venom on him, Fjord doesn’t quite smile, but it’s a near thing. She played a good game, and Fjord had really thought she had a handle on him, but it turns out she never did, because in this last play of the game, she misjudged her hand. The group is the only thing Fjord’s ever cared about protecting, so it costs him nothing to tell the Plank King, cool as a cucumber, that Beau can make Avantika tell the truth. He can see the moment Avantika realizes he’s called her bluff. It isn’t satisfaction, exactly, what pulses through him, but he refuses to follow the thread, afraid of where it will go. It’s only when he hears the snap of her neck that he wipes the blood out of his mouth.

When Jester teasingly asks him - _where to, Captain,_ Fjord allows himself to take the first deep breath he’s taken in what seems like months. He looks at them, all looking worse for the wear, but so desperately alive, and grins. Keep the group safe. Sure. They’ll make it work.

**Author's Note:**

> catch me @calebwidogasts on tumblr while I slowly push through my 8 million bad things happen bingo prompts and also cry about critical role all the time


End file.
